Monday, August 12, 2013

Some Flies for Idaho and Montana

This Wednesday morning, I'm flying out to Idaho with my friend Bruce to fish the Henry's Fork, Madison River and a couple of other smaller streams in mountains. We will be staying at the Trouthunter Lodge on the banks of the Henry's Fork, where his son JB works in the fly shop. Check out JB's main passion here: LINK The last few weeks I've been tying flies for the trip, and thought I would share a few of the patterns with you here.

These are Lawson's Honey Ants. They appear mid August and the trout love 'em. JB says they are a hot pattern right now on the rivers. Trout candy...........

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Here's a Callibaetis spinner tied with deer hair wings. Sparse, but very effective when those big Henry's Fork rainbows are casually sipping the naturals off the smooth surface of its waters.

These are spent partridge caddis. I tie them with a touch-dubbed thorax instead of hackle, and they work like a charm. Simple to tie; dubbed fur abdomen, zelon underwing, partridge body feathers (2) for the wing, and a hare's ear touch-dubbed thorax. They float like a cork and the trout like the lazy drift they impart as they sit down low in the film - in trout speak they shout, "Easy friggin' meal!"

And here's a poor photo of a great fly and one I'll use often, the Iris Caddis. When the Hydropsyche are hatching in the evening, this is the only fly you need to take those aggressively feeding fish. I know, it looks like a dust bunny on steroids, but it takes fish like the government takes your hard earned cash.

Here's another mug shot of the Irish Cabbage.

We'll try to post some kind of report while we're there, but don't get too excited because I just may slack off and wait until I get back to the homestead. Time will tell.

5 comments:

Jaybird
said...

I'm jealous , but Matt remember rule number #1. If you catch fish on the Henrys Fork it dosent mean you caught fish on the Ranch . These are two different animals , that some people like to lump into one . Like once I was at a Knicks Game with Cindy Crawford , it's a true statement . I was 3 sections away , I didn't buy her a beer and head over to the Club Lavo with her later ... Some people don't respect the Ranch .

Jay, we plan to fish the Ranch on the HF. I'll be sure to note it here if we do fish the "other" water. :) P.S. If you find a Sage rod tip on that PA limestone creek we both fish, let me know. One of my friends lost it there this Sunday. Best, Matt

Grizzly attack near Island Park 8/15 , hope you dropped the fifty bucks on bear spray . Or you will have the greatest blog entry of all time.... Tight lines ..... Instead of check your hooks , if you see a grizzly , check your shorts!

Jesus Now Idaho is burning to a crisp , while the weather in Jersey is Glorious . I'm starting to put 2 & 2 together her Matt , I'm waiting to see if Idaho becomes littered with sink holes , and the Rahway river becomes a top tailwater .

Jay, we did carry bear spray and even ran into one of the buggers but luckily we heard it coming (growling and snorting in the willows at us) and got the hell out of there. We stayed calm, so shorts were clean. :)

The fires were awesome from the air, very powerful. I'll post some more photos soon. We can float the Rahway when that happens - Vinnie will row. :)